Erev Shabbat Guest Speaker Join us at 6:45 p.m. Friday, February 3, at All Souls for Erev Shabbat worship and to welcome guest speaker RitaCortes, Kansas City, Missouri, School District board member and executive director of the Menorah Heritage Foundation. We look forward to having Rita Cortes share her insights on both the present and the future of our Kansas City School District, and on the state of our KC Jewish community.
Saturday Study Session At 9:30 a.m. Saturday, February 4, at the home of Fay and Rabbi Doug or on Zoom, we begin our Jewish study series “Ask the Rabbi” — a series of study sessions based on questions submitted to Rabbi Doug by congregants. RSVP required for in-person attendance at rabbidoug@kolamikc.org. To attend via Zoom, click here. This Week's Kol Ami Events
Book Club The Kol Ami Book Club convenes at 7 p.m. tonight — Tuesday, January 31 — on Zoom to discuss the novel Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott. For the Zoom link, click here. Tu B’Shvat Seder and MFAF Fundraiser We celebrate Tu B’Shvat on Sunday, February 5, with a seder and program beginning at 5 p.m. to honor and raise funds for the Migrant Farmworkers Assistance Fund. Learn more about this social-service nonprofit and the work it does. This event takes place at Guadalupe Center, 1015 Avenida Cesar E. Chavez, Kansas City, Missouri (which has a parking lot across from the entrance). Click here for more information and to get tickets.
Yahrzeit This Week February 5 Morris Begun – father of Wynne Begun
We Wish Mi Shebeirach A Complete Healing of Mind, Body and Spirit to:
Diane Alexander Robert Clinton Wayne Courtois-Seligman Rev. Kendyl Gibbons Amanda Goldstein Harriet Greenwald Marc Ordo Michah ben Sarah Joel Zitron
If you would like a name to continue to be listed or if you have a new name to include, please send an email to healing@kolamikc.org.
Rabbi's Week in Review
We know all too well that our story — the story of our exodus and being freed from bondage — is only the beginning of our story. We have been fighting ever since for our freedom — the freedom to be who we are as Jews, without fear or threat of harm or persecution. Yet, being redeemed from slavery serves as a foundation of hope. For whatever dire straits we are in, we always hold out hope.
This Week's Torah Portion Parashat Beshalach (Shemot/Exodus 13:17-17:16)
As B’nai Yisrael successfully cross the parted Sea of Reeds, we are left to contemplate whether this was a miracle from G-d or has a “more rational” explanation. In reading about these Torah-related moments, do we sometimes miss the message in our desire to attach ourselves to some explanation.
Rather than deciding whether it happened, we can instead explore how G-d’s power to redeem may find expression — whether we push forward in doing a part to better the world with our sense that redemption is always possible.
Weekly Feature
Hand to Mouth The Farmworker's Role in Our Food's Journey By Wynne Begun
Farmworker-picked peaches for sale I had one of those aha moments this past summer. I was standing in a yard that was mostly dirt. It had rained, so I had to watch where I stepped. I had just come out of a dormitory-like room that housed six men. The day was hot, and the room had no A/C, just a fan. This accommodation for migrant workers was one of the better ones, we were told. And the men who slept there were very proud of their work.
How could I not have previously known about migrant workers in Missouri? How had they been so invisible?
The work these men do allows me to take a bite of an crunchy apple or a ripe peach — juicy and sweet. How did I think that apple or that peach got to the store? I really had no idea until that moment — men and women laboring in the heat under the relentless sun and in the packing houses, hand-picking and sorting the fruit.
When I finally connected these dots, I committed to support the work of the Migrant Farmworkers Assistance Fund. Kol Ami has partnered with this organization, which helps provide much-needed social services to these essential workers including health care, food, clothing, child care, and school-enrollment assistance for their children. MFAF director Suzanne Gladney and husband Alan Lubert make it happen through dedication, hard work and the support of a small staff and volunteers.
Let’s make these migrant workers visible through our support. You have till February 1 to get tickets for Kol Ami’s Tu B’Shvat seder and MFAF fundraiser. Learn more about this social-service nonprofit and the work it does.
The seder begins at 5 p.m. Sunday, February 5, and includes a vegetarian meal and a program with emcee Brian Greenwald and MFAF guests. It takes place at Guadalupe Center, 1015 Avenida Cesar E. Chavez, Kansas City, Missouri (which has a parking lot across from the entrance). Click here for more information and to get tickets.
Our mailing address is: Congregation Kol Ami 4501 Walnut Street ℅ All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church Kansas City, MO 64111
